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TRONICS.TXT
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2006-10-19
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 1992 ISSUE OF LIMA NEWSLETTER
THE TRONICS SALES CORPORATION:
HOW TO MAKE REALLY BIG MONEY SELLING
99/4A COMPUTERS TO YOUR FRIENDS
reported by Charles Good
Lima Ohio User Group
The TRONICS SALES CORPORATION (whose 1982 address and
phone were 2563 East Loop 820 North, Fort Worth TX 76118,
817-595-1202) had a deal for you! At least they did in 1982.
All you had to do was sell your friends and relatives 99/4A
computer systems. If you sell only two systems a month and
the value of each sale averages $450 (about the list price
of a 99/4A console back then), and if you could talk your
customers into selling two $450 99/4A systems a month to
their friends, then your year's commission on all these
sales will be $852082! This figure is generated by a TRONICS
cassette program shown to all potential TRONICS 99/4A
"distributors" (door to salespeople), and of course
computers never lie!
TRONICS was created by Mike Wilcox and Dave Guardanapo
to sell 99/4A's using a pyramid system of distributors and
subdistributors, similar to the way AMWAY home care
products are sold today. TRONICS produced a set of
cassette programs designed to show off the unique features
of the 99/4A. These cassettes were part of a distributer's
sales kit. They came packaged in a blue plastic hard case
that when opened held all the cassettes upright with their
titles clearly visible to the user. This blue case is
larger then, but closely resembles some plastic hard 10
pack disk cases I have seen which open into a triangular
shaped disk holder. One of the cassettes is an audio
commentary on how to open the box of your new 99/4A and
assemble the parts. Most of the software is written in TI
BASIC. There is one XB demo and one program that uses TEII
and speech. TRONICS cassette software includes a spelling
game (vesions with and without speech), two graphic demos,
an all text SALES program that explains how to earn the big
bucks, and a TALKWARE tape. These are all dated in REM
statements between 7/28/82 and 8/30/82. The SIGHTS AND
SOUNDS program says "Copyright Texas Instruments and
Tronics Sales Corp 1982", suggesting an official arrangemet
between TI and TRONICS. Apparently TI knew about and
approved of TRONICS pyramid sales scheme.
The TALKWARE cassette is unique. One side contains a
TI BASIC program called "Lets Get Technical". This MUST be
loaded from cassette with the PE Box shut off and no module
plugged into the console. CALL FILES(1) doesn't free up
enough memory to allow loading this from disk. When loaded
from cassette, you have only 160 bytes of free memory left!
When you RUN the TALKWARE program, on screen text
instructs you to turn the cassette over, rewind the
cassette to the beginning of side two, press cassette PLAY,
and then press <ENTER> when the cassette produces an
audible beep. The program in the computer then begins to
execute in synchrony with the audio commentary on side two
of the tape. As computer graphics illustrate the various
parts of a (side car) expanded 99/4A system, the voice
tells you about what you are looking at. If you leave the
tape recorder hooked up to the computer, the voice comes
out of the computer's monitor speaker as if the computer
and not the tape were generating the words. This sort of
audio tape/computer synchronization is a neat idea,
something I have not encountered before.
As explained in the SALES tape's TI BASIC program, you
earn commissions on the computer systems you sell and you
earn commissions on sales of people in your "down line".
If you talk A into selling TI Home Computer's, and A
recruits B, and B gets C to sell then A, B, C are all part
of your "down line". There is the theoretical possibility
that such a "down line" can grow exponentially to a very
large size. The real money is in the commissions earned
based on the sales of one's "down line". An "Executive
Distributor" earns 10 percent on his own sales, 3 percent
on his 1st level "down line", and 2 percent on sales of the
3rd through 5th level "down line" sales. The screen dump
from the SALES program reproduced below shows hypothetical
data for 12 months if you have 5 levels of "down line" and
each individual in your network including yourself makes
two $450 sales each month. The computer says a total of
94448 computer systems would be sold, and your total
commission for the year would be $852084. Only two sales
per month-- this should be easy! So why arn't we all
millionares?
.NA
.NF
And as a Master Distributor
you would recieve the
following:
BONUSES &
LEVEL SALES COMMISSIONS
----- ----- -----------
Sales 24 $1080
1st 264 $3564
2nd 1760 $15840
3rd 7920 $71280
4th 25344 $228096
5th 59136 $532224
Total 94448 $852084
Bill Gaskill sent me a full color glossy bruchure titled
TI HOME COMPUTER PROGRAM LIBRARY - TRONICS dated 11/82.
The insides are basically identical to the TI brochure of
the same name minus the "Tronics", but the last two pages
have some interesting quotes:
"Tronics was the first electronics marketing company of
its kind. We specialize in distributing home electronics by
using a proven direct sales plan. It's a system that has
bee used successfully by many other companies for decades,
but never for products like home computers. Already over
15000 Tronics distributors all over the country have joined
us to help serve this fast growing market.
"Tronics Sales Corporation has experienced phenomenal
growth. Our business grew by 25% a month during the first
year. In the first six months, we sold 405 computers; now
we're selling over 1500 a month. Next year we expect to
increase that tenfold. ...... It's predicted that by 1986
about 85% of the homes in America will have one or more home
computers.
"The relationship between Texas Instruments and Tronics
Sales Corporation is solely that of an independent buyer and
seller."